MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Breaking News : Several injured in suicide bomber attack in İstanbul.A suicide bomber attack in İstanbul's main square has caused a number of injuries. The explosion occurred Sunday morning on Taksim square, close to a spot where police are stationed. A witness says ambulances have arrived on the scene and medics are attending to the injured. According to first reports, 15 people were injured.Read full story here.Click here for comments.

• UN: Hezbollah's invitation to boycott the Hariri Tribunal "unacceptable intimidation".United Nations Secretary’s harsh response to the head of the Party of God after he charges that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon gets all of its information from Israel. Nasrallah’s attack provoked by rumours that the court plans to charge Hezbollah members for the assassination. Fears that tension between Sunnis and Shiites could explode into violence.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• First arrest in parcel bomb plot: female medical student from Sanaa university in Yemen held.Yemeni forces Saturday arrested a woman suspected of sending mail bombs on two US-bound flights in an alleged Al Qaeda plot that Britain said was aimed at blowing up at least one of the planes.The woman was arrested along with her mother after her mobile phone number was found on the receipt for the parcel bombs, a security official told AFP.She is a medical student at Sanaa university and her father is a petroleum engineer, the official added.Read the full story here.More here.Click here for comments.

• 20 explosive devices suspected to be en route to US.British, American press report security forces trying to trace parcels sent in last 48 hours via airmail to European destinations. It is feared packages scattered in various airports, may already be on US soil. Security beefed at airports. US and European security and intelligence forces are working to trace as many as 20 packages suspected to contain explosives which may have been sent to Jewish facilities, similar to the two devices found Friday in Dubai and Britain."The parcel was prepared in a professional way where a closed electrical circuit was connected to a mobile phone SIM card hidden inside the printer," the statement said. "This tactic carries the hallmarks of methods used previously by terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda."Read the full story here.More here.Click here for comments.

• Obama is a bigger threat to the U.S. than Al Qaeda, says Colorado governor candidate.President Barack Obama is a bigger threat to the United States than Al Qaeda or terrorism, Colorado gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo has claimed. The former Congressman made the comments while campaigning in Canon City Tuesday.Tancredo said that Obama posed a threat to the Constitution, saying: 'It's not Al Qaeda, it's the guy sitting in the White House.'Hmmm.....i wonder how many would agree if a poll was held?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:InfidelBloggers.CNN Shock Interview: Radical Muslim Cleric Describes Violent Islamic Vision.According to Choudary, violent terrorist attacks are a “peaceful” warning to countries like the United States and Israel, whom he claims are occupying Muslim lands. He also admits to encouraging Muslims in the United States to carry out these kinds of attacks."We are not at war with Islam".But it seems Islam is at war with us?Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• 4 French Confirmed Dead in Antarctic Copter Crash.All four people on a French helicopter that crashed this week in rough weather in Antarctica were confirmed dead Saturday, Australian and French rescuers said.Another helicopter from Dumont-d'Urville scientific station in Antarctica flew to the site of the crashed aircraft and a doctor on board confirmed the deaths, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement.The downed AS350 Squirrel helicopter was operated in Antarctica from the French research vessel, L'Astrolabe, which is currently icebound about 230 miles northeast of the Dumont-d'Urville station.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:BackToBasics.BREAKING : Canada Declares BPA as a Toxic Substance!Canada has just become the first country in the world to regulate bisphenol A(BPA) as a toxic substance. Our government has adopted a precautionary approach and specifically recognizes that BPA may be harmful to human and environmental health. This article highlights concerns about BPA and briefly discusses the new regulatory environment.What is BPA and how much are we exposed to?Read the full story here.Related : Canada leads the way with ban on baby bottles containing bisphenol A.Click here for comments.

• HT:AmericanThinker.New Obama Bio Goes Comically Awry.Said William Buckley for the ages, "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University."If Obama wrote a single inspired or imaginative sentence in his many Herald columns, I was not able to find it. Worse, virtually every column promised more counterproductive meddling in the life of the community. Such was the petty political yoke to which our literary master had to harness his outsized talent during these fallow years.Time Magazine's Joe Klein had less patience still with this pattern. Klein counted no fewer than fifty instances of "excruciatingly judicious on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-handedness" in Audacity. He calls the tendency "so pronounced that it almost seems an obsessive-compulsive tic."It takes a Harvard professor to elevate an obsessive-compulsive tic to presidential greatness. In my own forthcoming book, Deconstructing Obama, I will show how students can learn more about America at my alma mater, Purdue, than they can at Harvard, and at a sizeable discount, to boot.Amen to that!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:EmergingCorruption.This Election Cycle Is About…Revolution.The midterm elections coming up this November 2nd are perhaps the most important election since the US Civil War. Where the 1864 election came in the midst of a war that tore families apart, saw brothers fighting brothers and the fate of the Union and the issue of slavery hanging in the balance, among other pressing questions (slavery was not the only catalyst for the US Civil War), the 2010 midterm elections are just as critical as again we see the very well-being of our country hanging in the balance.The issue that sets this election cycle apart from almost all others is a question of – dare I say it – rebellion; of revolution.For far too long we have allowed the inside-the-beltway mentality to cheat generations of Americans out of purity in government. We have tolerated corruption and nepotism and now, as we fight for the very soul of our nation, we truly come to understand two quotes from a man far more aware of the fragility of the Great American Experiment than we;

1.  Thomas Jefferson:“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”and,
2. “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” The time is upon us. The time has come for each and every American citizen to stand-up and make a choice – and stand by that choice. Do you stand for Progressivism and government dependence? Or do you choose freedom and self-government? Do you choose slavery to an elitist class? Or the liberty that comes from honest representative government.The time has now come, for all of us, to choose.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:DougRoss.Awesome: Under Barack Obama, the military might of the United States has been reduced to tweeting birthday wishes to mass-murdering dictators.What has this country become under Barack Obama? Sending birthday wishes to dictators in the hope they'll release their hostages?That's a rhetorical question.Barack Obama is Jimmy Carter without the spine.Read the full pussy story here.Click here for comments.

• Chicago-bound explosives same as those used in Detroit plot.Initial checks show devices found in UK, Dubai contained PETN explosive material which was used by Nigerian terrorist who planned Detroit terror plot last Christmas.American media reported Saturday that the explosives found in Dubai and the UK are the same type used by al-Qaeda's Yemeni wing in its attempt to blow up an airplane over Detroit last Christmas.According to reports, initial checks show the devices contained PETN, the same explosive material used by Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. The substance is extremely potent. The checks have yet to receive official confirmation.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:BigPeace.Political Correctness and the Muslim Problem.Bill O’Reilly, who generally eschews the label of “conservative,” portraying himself, instead, as an “independent with traditional values,” has been vehemently taking on “the Muslim problem” for the past several months.While O’Reilly often frustrates true conservatives and libertarians with his middle of the road views, the Fox News host has not held back on any of the recent hot-button issues involving Muslims.Defending those who lost loved ones in the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, some of whom he counts as personal friends, O’Reilly has fervently maintained that the Ground Zero mosque project will not be achieved as planned because it will be difficult to fund, and no construction crews will agree to build it.His most recent interview on the subject, with Ahmed Rehab of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was not as remarkable as that with Raza two months ago. O’Reilly accepted a “correction” to the record from Rehab that there had been a statement from Muslim-Americans condemning the Times Square bomber, but finally agreed to disagree when Rehab asserted that average Muslims are not part of the problem. “Your language needs to be revised,” Rehab cautioned O’Reilly.Honesty with ourselves, our families and friends, our colleagues, our fellow citizens, and our political leaders is hard. It involves confronting fear. But, those who are slaves to the denial, rationalization, and overcompensation of political correctness are not solving the problem. Instead, they are contributing to its strength and power.It's enough that now with the recent terrorist attempt the President still can't get the words "Muslim and Islamic Jihad" over his lips!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:BigPeace.Mexico: Obama Needs to Wake Up and Smell the Gunpowder.While the Obama administration worries about security issues half way around the world in such places as Afghanistan, Iran, and North Korea, a serious problem is brewing right on our southern border. Drug-related violence in Mexico has claimed some 29,000 lives since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the cartels four years ago. The situation is now so bad that some analysts worry that Mexico could become a “failed state.”.The president needs to place this issue at the top of his national security agenda before he is blind-sided by a full-fledged crisis. And all policy options—including the suggestion of Mexico’s former president Vicente Fox to end drug prohibition as a way to de-fund the cartels—have to be put on the table. Time is running out. The consequences flowing from Washington’s continued policy drift could be very unpleasant indeed, leading to the possible emergence of a narco-republic—and perhaps even a failed state—on our southern frontier.Hmmmm.....all he seems to be able to do is vacationing ,play golf and "Blame the Jews".Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• PM insists Rachel's Tomb is heritage site.Prime Minister Netanyahu rejects UNESCO's call to remove Rachel's Tomb, Cave of Patriarchs from list of Israel's heritage sites, dubs organization's decision political, 'absurd attempt to cut Israel off from its heritage'. "The attempt to disconnect between Israel and its heritage is absurd," said a statement released by Netanyahu's office. "If the locations in which the mothers and fathers of the Hebrew people: Abraham, Yitzhak, Sarah, Rivkah, Leah, and Rachel were buried 4,000 years ago are not part of Jewish heritage, then what is?" Read the full scandal here.More on this hot topic :Since the above picture the town of Bethlehem has grown several fold and where once Mother Rachel's Tomb was in an open area on the road side. Today it stands in the center of the town with one of the main streets passing right next to it. Since 1948 Muslims have created their own cemetery surrounding the building on three sides. For political purposes, Muslims claim that Rachel's Tomb is one of their burial plots and that it contains a Muslim notable rather than Mother Rachel. Note that in these photos from the early 1900's no Muslim cemetary exists near the Tomb.Source. Click here for comments.

• Obama returning to Honolulu for third straight Christmas.President Barack Obama will be returning to Honolulu, where he was "presumably" born, for the third straight Christmas, three sources told the Star-Advertiser today.Obama and his family spent the holidays on Oahu’s windward side in a five-bedroom private home on a peninsula overlooking Kailua Beach last year. Are the Obamas expected to stay at the same multi-million dollar home on this trip, as well?Life is just one great vacation for this modern age king Louis XVI and his entourage.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• US President Obama sets Muslim outreach for Indonesia trip.US President Barack Obama will visit Indonesia’s largest mosque and make a major outdoor speech directed at the global Muslim community when he visits Indonesia next month, the White House said on Thursday.Obama had been expected to visit another major religious site during his Asian tour, the Sikh Golden Temple in the northern Indian city of Amritsar. Indian media reports said the visit was canceled after aides balked at the idea of the US president wearing the scarf or skullcap required at the site. Obama is a Christian but faces persistent talk among some members of the US public that he is a Muslim and, the reports said, aides feared pictures of him wearing such headgear could fuel such rumors.Yeah this will surely make the Idians not think that he's a Muslim !Read the full story here.More here.Click here for comments.

• HT:WeaselZippers.Pakistan: US Ambassador Makes First Ever Official Visit to Faisal Mosque.The American ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter visited the Faisal Mosque along with his wife, Marilyn Wyatt.He’s only been in country for two days and he’s already taking his shoes off and making first-ever official visits to mosques.Obama's diplomacy at it's best insulting India's non Muslim community and on the other hand outreach to Muslims just laying the groundwork for an all out war between Pakistan and India!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Eyewitness saw strange goings-on at Yemen's international airport at time of jihad plot.By now, you've likely heard the key details surrounding an Al Qaeda plot involving explosives found aboard cargo planes bound for the U.S, originating from Yemen.Here are a few interesting details on Yemen that I became aware of this afternoon after speaking with an intelligence source who actually flew out of Sana'a, Yemen to Dubai yesterday, around the time the explosives were found.) The source noticed a good deal of large bags, "30 or 40 of them," being brought by porters (grown adults, this time) to the personal baggage terminal, rather than to the cargo terminal, which seemed odd. Given the conditions my source described, it obviously isn't very hard to imagine a suspicious package making its way onto a plane flying out of Yemen. It also isn't difficult to imagine that Al Qaeda may have sympathizers or operatives actually working at the airport who would help facilitate getting explosives onto flights.Read the full story here.Click here for comments. HT:Jihadwatch

• HT:TheAmericanDream.If You Want To Board An Airplane In America You Now Have Two Options: Let Airport Security Gawk At Your Exposed Body Or Let Airport Security Feel You Up.In America today, we have become so spooked by "terror threats" that now we will submit to just about anything in the name of security. At this point, we are allowing ourselves to be treated as little more than cattle. Procedures that would once be considered an affront to human dignity are now accepted as "the new normal". If you want to get on an airplane in America today, you must either go through one of the incredibly intrusive full body scanners that are going into all U.S. airports and let airport security gawk at your exposed body, or you must allow airport security to feel you up using the new "enhanced pat-down" techniques they are being instructed to employ. As you will see below, these new pat-down procedures are incredibly intrusive. If anyone tried to touch us like that out on the street they would be put in prison. But this is the new America where all of us must give up all of our privacy and all of our dignity just so that everyone can feel a little bit safer.Up until this week, many Americans were not that concerned about the new full body security scanners going into airports across the nation because they still had the alternative of opting for a minimally intrusive pat-down. But now that has all changed. It turns out that too many Americans were opting for the pat-down, so now the TSA is rolling out their new "enhanced pat-down" procedures.Previously, airport security officials used the backs of their hands to pat down passengers, but now they are being required to use the fronts of their hands. This includes directly touching some body parts that would just receive only a quick brush over with the back of the hand before.MFS:As we have said many times before :"The weakest link in Airport security is the staff working at the airport"Do they go true the same kind of security mesures?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Head of Pakistan's Nuclear Program: Pakistan Has the Right to Use Nuclear Weapons Should the Need Arise.In a recent interview with investigative journalist Sameh 'Abdallah of the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram, Lieutenant-General (Ret.) Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, the director-general since 1988 of Pakistan's Strategic Planning Division – the military body responsible for the production, security, and storage of Pakistan's nuclear weapons – said that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is aimed chiefly at India, since, he claimed, Pakistan had no other enemies. He stressed that Pakistan has the right to use these weapons if the need arises, and to defend its sovereignty and its nuclear arsenal against attempts to dismantle or harm them. He added that Pakistan is entitled to share its knowledge and experience in the nuclear field with other countries, such as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, under the supervision of the IAEA, thus preventing Pakistan's isolation.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• In Uzbekistan, Baptists are fined, beaten, their Bibles seized, all for praying “without authorisation”. Police raids a home, breaking up a celebration, terrorising and taking the names of those present. In the following days, some of the victims are beaten and threatened again. Five are accused of “teaching religion”, and sentenced to heavy fines. Baptists complain unsuccessfully of the abuses inflicted upon them.The convictions were upheld on 14 October by the Appeal Court in Samarkand. Theoretically, the decision means that teaching one’s religion to one’s children is illegal.The five Baptists are not taking the decision lying down. They told the court that Article 29 of the Uzbek constitution guarantees “freedom of thought, speech and convictions.” They also complained about the beating they received and the intimidation they had to endure.The authorities, for their part, have denied all the allegations and have refused any investigation into the claims made by the Baptists.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.